Don't let the picture fool you. I just couldn't find an actual photo of this 12" so I assumed this one would do. The Superunit here (not the addition of the R) is actually Zeni Geva with Steve Albini. I've posted stuff by both of them in the past so readers should already know what's up. Fans of either will want this one since it really doesn't sound like either. Unfortunately, two tracks are all you're going to get.
Here
these two cuts are actually taken from an earlier album - as you can see, back then it wasn't billed as superunit (added later, like with john zorn's bladerunner quartet w/dave lombardo)... the whole album is very good btw and *definitely* recommended to any fans of albini and/or ZG, though i disagree, to me it sounds like a natural mix of both rather than neither; "kettle lake" is one of the most harrowing songs steve has ever written imo and is so well crafted for that particular group of four players that i can't tell for sure whether he wrote it for the date or whether it was co-written with null. every so often i look for more info on the song - which would have been worthy of johnny cash - and that's how i ended up here, not sure whether there are rips of the album but i'm sure you'll find one if there is ;-)
ReplyDeleteI actually have that album. For some reason, I assumed they were different versions. This has longer track times for both cuts. Maybe I need to do some close listening.
ReplyDeletewell, hang on, maybe *i* am assuming they are NOT the same... i am gonna grab em and check it out ;-)
ReplyDelete... took me until tonight to listen to the damn things!! very very busy at the moment (and not blogging) - anyway yeah, you were right in your assumptions, these are clearly different takes recorded (what sounds like) live in the studio. both are taken slower, hence the difference in length... sorry i jumped in so fast! assumptions... sometimes we get away with it and sometimes not :)
ReplyDeletealbini possibly felt (like i do!) that "kettle lake" had been overlooked and therefore totally missed by most people when the album disappeared so fast (same goes for "painwise" i guess) - but here he kills it imo by slowing it just too far. that, combined with the greatly diminished power of the vocal, removes the raw emotional resonance of the original live recording (and it turns out i was even wrong about that, it's one of a handful of tracks they cut with a bassist - so five players not four! i get so into the three layered guitars that i didn't notice the bass at all... AFTER leaving the first comment i finally dug out my own cd and there's (some of) the info (no writing credit)) - still a good song of course, but i don't think they really did it justice here... "painwise" sounds pretty good - slowing that one down just makes it more brooding and emphasises the led zep quote implicit in the drum pattern, which is not spelt out quite so clearly in the live version (everyone perhaps still recovering from the previous number, but not quite on it, anyway) ... thanks for making these cuts available, i had no fuckin idea! cheers, c :)